


Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

by BranHowe



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21802633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BranHowe/pseuds/BranHowe
Summary: Sam has suffered a lot of injuries in the past, this one should not be such a big deal as well.
Relationships: Castiel/Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A huge shout out to my friend [Sumira79](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sumira79/) without whom I would have never been able to finish this piece on time. 
> 
> Done for the Sastiel Secret Santa, for [Sealionsam](https://sealionsam.tumblr.com) at Tumblr.

The truck they were going after made a hard turn and broke apart the wooden partition closing off the side road that went along the river. Any other driver but Dean would have lost them, and even then the edge of the river went past way too close for Sam’s liking, who cursed loudly while Dean cackled like a madman. Sam moved his head in reprobation; he knew that this fast and the furious car pursuit might have been in Dean’s bucket list for years now but he felt that him ending with a heart attack was not a price he was willing to pay.

Soon enough, the truck did a couple of hard turns into the wild bushes, sliding over the few inches of recently fallen snow and parked behind a ramshackle hut that obviously nobody but the owners of the place knew about. Sam jumped out of the car before Dean turned off the engine, running towards the hut, gun in hand, clearly hearing his brother's call for caution like he always did whenever they got separated. 

He broke the door apart and saw the tiny single room empty. He did a double pass, checking for a closet or something but there was nothing more than a wire mattress, a couple of duffle bags and a camp stove on the almost rotten wooden floor. He heard Dean screaming something and a couple of shots and turned around to walk out of the shack to help his brother when a hand broke from between the planks and pulled him down into the crawlspace.

In the middle of the pain, the dust and the feeling of something not being entirely right with his body at the moment, he saw the woman jump at him and shot a couple of silver bullets with enough precision to see her fall over him, now dead. He coughed and sneezed a couple of times and did his best to get up and out of the makeshift hole he had been forced into and heard his brother screaming and, by the sound of it, running after the man into the vegetation. Sam pressed a hand to his side, feeling the numbness on his thigh and sensed the wetness of his jeans before he realized there was a large splinter tearing his muscle. He cursed; he wouldn’t be able to help Dean like this. Turning around, he walked by the truck’s side, expecting to attack the guy if he tried to come back for the truck. 

He suddenly heard something shifting and looked around only to be attacked by another man.  
They fell to the ground and fought. A werewolf’s strength was not as impossible to handle as a vampire but he was still considerably stronger than a normal human being and his claws had already claimed some marks on Sam’s shoulder.

He threw his elbow at the werewolf’s face to gain some distance and broke his nose with the little gap he managed to find. Bleeding and suddenly disoriented, the werewolf cursed Sam when he managed to turn him over and pin him against the dirt, reaching for his gun.

“Oh, so you’re a coward enough to shoot me all helpless like this?” snarled the man.

Sam shot his heart and head and waited for him to stop moving. “I’m not stupid.” He said, standing up once more, his leg cramping and reminding him of the splinter. He felt it deeper now and every step was excruciating. He held himself against the truck and wondered about removing it but reconsidered, in case it had hit any important vein or nerve.

He stood alert for a while, waiting for Dean to come out of the bushes, feeling his jeans getting slowly wetter with his own blood, freezing with the outside temperature and beginning to feel that cold sweat he had long ago tied together to the anxiety of being suddenly unable to help his brother in a dire situation. And it wasn’t like he didn’t hear them, he actually could hear some noise, not far away but not close enough to distinguish what was happening. He then heard a couple of shots and, finally, his brother’s voice.

“Sam?”

“Dean!” 

After what to Sam felt like an eternity, he finally allowed himself to breathe when a very beaten and dragged but overall okay Dean came out, fighting against the branches snagging his steps, obviously frowning. Sam laughed a little; his brother was such a child with the weirdest things. 

Dean looked at Sam, assessing him for a moment from top to bottom and then paced faster. 

“Hey”

“Hey...” 

Sam allowed his body to fall on his brother’s arms. He felt Dean tense under the sudden action. Sam laughed when Dean began to pat his torso and felt his forehead, he was sweating. 

“Sam—”

“My leg, it’s a splinter. I uh… I think it’s way too deep.”

“What the hell?” Dean softly patted Sam’s jeans and Sam felt his hold tense more “Come on, we gotta get you to a hospital right now.”

Sam nodded softly and allowed himself to be held by Dean on their way to the car. On the way to the hospital they both told each other their experiences; Dean had been jumped by another one in the bushes as well.

“Well, at least we got ‘em all… So what do you say? Repairing the old gramps hut that nobody knows why he left us?”

Sam snorted. “Yeah, sounds like a good story.” 

Their time at the hospital had been okay but not fun. Sam’s jeans had to be cut open, showing a couple of gashes extra that had to be stitched together and he had to stay with the splinter inside while they scanned his leg. The pain was because the splinter had broken inside his flesh, meaning that a minor surgery was in order.

Six hours later, Sam was sitting in the Impala once more. The pain was still diminished by the drugs he had been injected with so he was drowsily leaning against the window. His shoulder had been treated as well and his brother’s injuries had also been cleaned. Dean sighed.

“I think you’re too old for this already.”

“Shut up jerk.”

“Bitch.”

They found a motel and spent the rest of the night watching a bunch of old shows. Sam slowly drifted away into a soothing darkness until a couple hours later, when he turned to lay on his side like he always did and a sharp lightning of pain went up through his entire body from his leg. He jumped in the middle of the motion and hitched a groan in pain.

“You okay?”

Sam turned to look at his brother; he had already turned off the lights but Sam wasn’t sure if he had been asleep. 

“Yeah, it’s just the leg.”

“...You’ll have to sleep like that for a while.”

Sam sighed. “I hate this.”

Dean snickered and then he sat back. Sam grimaced with the sudden burst of light from the lamp. Dean stood up and walked towards his duffel bag, retrieving a pill from the tube of medicine and a bottle of water. 

“Here.”

Sam swallowed and did his best to go back to sleep after getting a pat on his shoulder from his brother. The following day he woke up with the alarm but it only took him stretching towards it to turn it off to be reminded of the recent surgery he had. He fell again on the pillow and sighed. This was definitely not going to be fun. 

The following day they started their way home. After hours of driving they were finally leaving the freezing cold area of Michigan but Sam was not really feeling like anything was getting warmer at all. He reached for the heater and cranked it up higher. Half an hour later, he had given up on that as well and took a different route to get warm.

“Dean, I’m hungry.”

Dean turned and gave him a once-over. “Alright, keep your eyes open and tell me if you see anywhere good.”

“Okay.”

Sam slurped his corn soup with gusto, having been in a real need to warm himself up. It had not been the best nor the worst soup he’d ever had but it warmed his insides alright while the heat of the place warmed his exterior and that was enough. Dean munched his bacon burger happily while complaining about the dry spell of hook-ups he’d been having, opportunity that Sam took to calling him old and, consequently, get a kick under the table.

The rest of the day went on uneventful and boring. Sam had totally forgotten that once they had finished eating, they would have to go back to the car and now instead of a cold piece of crap, it was a freezing cold piece of crap. He crouched into himself to try to keep his body warm to almost no avail. 

Dean noticed. A few hours later, he stopped at a motel that didn’t seem as crappy as their usual and booked the night. The only excuse he gave Sam was that he wanted to catch the Twilight Zone midnight marathon. Sam happily went along with the lie. Considering it was still half past seven, there was no other way to keep the illusion.

Finally warm after taking a bath, Sam unapologetically went to bed and said goodnight to his brother after taking his medicine, obviously exhausted. Of what, he could not really tell himself. His body fortunately remembered to stay asleep on his back.

The following day Sam woke up to the sound of a door opening and closing. Dean arrived with a cup of coffee and a donut. Which was definitely not what Sam would have preferred for breakfast but still ate, realizing his brother was trying to be sympathetic with all the leg stuff. He couldn’t say he was glad to get back in the car, especially since he clearly felt himself shivering after he sat on the glacial leather but he couldn’t say much about it. He would feel much better once they got home.

Their lunch was at another diner on another road but it could have been the very same joint as the one the night before. Still, the breakfast set was good and the coffee was warm. Once his cup was the only thing he had in front, Sam opened his phone and began to scroll down, looking at any interesting news. He frowned when his sight hit a particular headline.

“Hey Dean, look at this.”

Dean took the phone and read the headline: “Gruesome accident halts renovation of Chastaine Manor... Staircase falling and beheading of three people? A hundred and eighty year old estate… So, what do you say? Ghost?”

“Pretty sure, with that amount of years behind, I bet I can find something online about the history of the place right away.”

“Well then, it’s a bit too early for Mardi-Gras but I wouldn’t mind a trip to the land of Hoodoo.”

Sam snorted, taking his phone back from his brother’s hands and began to seek on historic websites. This helped him pass some time and forget his pain and cold for a while until they reached the next diner and got out of the car. He felt a sharp stab going through his nerves and held himself against the hood with a groan.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I sat for too long.”

“You want to walk for a bit?”

Sam fought a couple of goosebumps and nodded. The path to the diner was just gravel and there was nothing interesting to see around but Sam walked around the parking lot a couple of times before he went back to his brother and into the diner.

Dean eyed him thoughtfully for a while. “You sure you want to go there? We could ask someone else to do this.”

“It’s okay Dean, I’m not crippled. I mean, I feel some pain right now but it’s not like I’m dying.”

“You know the doctor said you would bust up those stitches if you strained your leg too much.”

“She also said I should walk normally as much as I could.”

“Sam—”

“Dean.” Sam cut his brother short “I can do this.”

Dean looked at his serious expression for a moment. “Alright then, let’s get going.”

They arrived in New Orleans late in the night, already knowing that the Chastaine family had been, like many back in the day, a well set family profiting on sugar cane fields worked through slavery. When the economy of the estate declined right after the abolishment of slavery, rumour came that the late-heiress of the family, Geraldine Chastaine, then a widow for the sixth time, killed her husbands in order to keep their money. The last one to suffer this fate had been Mr. Reginald LaFontaine, who had been reportedly found dead at the bottom of the stairs, beheaded. 

“So… should we go for the man or the woman?”

“Well, that’s the problem, the man was the one killed there but the Manor and the land belonged to the woman… They’re both buried in the same place so maybe we should get both?”

Dean sighed frustrated. “I hate doing extra work.”

The following day they went to the police, the morgue and the manor just to make sure they had not let anything else slip. All three victims had been men, which was not that unusual considering this was a construction site and the only female around these days was the interior designer but she had not been around at the time of the men’s death and had no relation with them apart from work. The EMF meter had gone off the charts in the Manor though so they were happy they were sticking to their ghost plan and happily marched their way towards a cajun place for dinner. Sam sighed with relief when he was finally able to rest his leg, feeling the heavy thumping of his heart drumming through his injury.

Sam sneezed after the third bite of his chicken.

“Dude, you sure you’re okay?”

“I told you I’m fine! This chicken is too spicy.”

“Look, all I’m saying is that you’re wearing that damned turtleneck like we’re still under the snow and you’ve been sneezing the whole day and I’m not buying any of that ‘It’s just the dust and the pepper’ kind of shit. You’re getting sick. And before you say something stupid you should remember I’ve treated you every single time you’ve gotten sick. I know.”

“...Not while I was at Stanford.”

Dean glared at Sam. “Alright, that’s it young man. You’re grounded.”

Sam snorted “What do you mean I’m grounded?”

“I mean I’m going to that graveyard alone. You stay in that Manor and make a ruckus to call Casper’s attention while I burn up those bodies.”

Sam and Dean fought for a while after that but somehow Dean was able to convince Sam that even if they burned the bodies, nothing proved that that would be enough to destroy it. Maybe it could be latched to something at the Manor. It proved to the both of them how not well Sam was feeling when he was unable to follow through Dean’s logic to find the holes although Sam was not really happy about that last realization.

Still, he could do the crappy job his brother had forced him to do and call the ghost’s attention.

Right after midnight, once he got Dean’s message that he was at the graveyard, right by the Chastaine mausoleum, Sam put the guard to sleep with the help of a simple spell and went in the Manor to call the attention of whomever it may have been. He stepped around the first floor to no avail and so began his way up the cursed staircases when he felt the drop in temperature chill his bones.

“I know you’re there, show yourself!” 

Considering the type of death the previous victims had gone through, Sam stopped going up and began to pace back. Soon a chandelier fell. Apparently the ghost was very angry that he was not going to his demise.

“You think I’m stupid? I’m not gonna let you drop me from the stairs!” 

Suddenly, the air condensed at the top of the stairs and the shape of Geraldine Chastaine came into view. Sam lifted his shotgun and shot at her before running back to the entryway, he tried to get out but the door was locked. Sam smirked slightly, he pulled his phone and texted Dean a quick message. 

—“the woman”

After that, he felt something pulling him and throwing him towards the other end of the hall. He crashed into the wall and fell, crying in pain when his weight fell over his injured leg. Cursing the moment they thought this was gonna be the easy part of the job, he stood up and took a hold on his shotgun, ready to meet the woman once more.

Sam was thrown aside a couple of times more before he was able to stand up, his injured leg sending a blazing white lightning of pain everytime. He shot her a couple times more, successfully buying time whenever he pretended to be trying to get out of the place and forcing her to keep her powers on the house but eventually ran out of shells. Limping slightly and realizing that he was starting to feel some dampness on his jeans, he found himself looking at the tools left behind by the crew, finding an iron hammer between all the stuff and turning around, ready to defend himself. 

He swung the hammer a couple of times successfully and ran away, trying to avoid thinking about how much time he would still need to hold her down. Distracted, he was met by her near the end of a hallway and he ended up getting his hammer stuck in the wall. After that blunder, the woman finally caught him and lifted him from the neck, strangling him. Sam did his best to fight her inhuman strength but he was losing air and clearly felt that numbing sensation that came from a lack of oxygen. After what felt like an eternity, the woman burst into flames and he fell to the ground gasping for air. 

Limping miserably, he crossed a couple of rooms towards the entryway and found his phone. He answered immediately.

“Yeah?”

“Fucking hell, remind me to bring dynamite next time, stupid stone covers.”

Sam laughed and panted, still needing some air.

“You okay Sammy?”

“Yeah, I uh—” he sneezed “I think I opened my wound.”

He almost felt his brother tense entirely when he heard his voice once more. “I’ll go right away.”

“No, Dean. I can walk, the motel is six blocks away.”

“Sam”

“Dude, it’ll take you thirty minutes to get here.”

Both men heard a loud thunder over them and that was the moment Sam realized that a steady pouring had started in the middle of his fight with the woman. He looked outside and sighed and heard his brother curse at the same time.

“What? What is it?”

“Road’s closed from here, might have to go ‘round.” He took a deep breath “Well Sammy, your wish has come true. I’ll see you at the motel.”

“‘Kay.”

“Call me when you get there.”

“I will.”

“Also remember to take your medicine.”

“Yes Mom.”

Dean hung up, obviously grumpy and Sam couldn’t help but smile fondly at the screen. Taking a deep breath, he gathered his stuff in his duffle bag, did his best to go into a mental space where the wound didn’t hurt so much and began to run towards their motel at the outskirts of the city.


	2. Chapter 2

The night was dense and the sky was pouring even harder than when he had left the Manor. His hair was sticking to his neck, his denim jacket was uncomfortably heavy and oddly sticky and the cold drafts of wind were seeping in through his open sleeves but he still did his best to crouch against the heavy and cold droplets that hit his body along the cold drafts. He found a small store roof where he stood for a second to take a breath before he took off once more, wondering if it would be a good idea to find another place, another motel to hide while he dealt with the odd situation he had met during his sprint towards the motel. Sensing the frantic heart beating next to his chest along with the throb of his open wound, Sam knew he was in trouble. Sam knew this was not supposed to be happening. That he was old enough to know better. That the moment Dean found out he would… No it was better not to think about what he would do. Just thinking about it froze his veins. If there was something more terrifying than fighting all the monsters that go bump in the night, it was fighting against his own brother.

But he knew he would if he had to, and god be damned if this was not worth fighting his brother over.

He huffed when he had to stop at the light before crossing the street and then rushed when he was sure there were no cars passing by. 

Once he got into the motel room, he rushed to the bathroom and reached for the used shirt he had left there in the morning. He took what he had been holding trembling below his jacket and wrapped it in it, doing his best to keep it tight between all the folds. His phone rang for the fifth time. Rushing to take out his phone, he slammed the door behind him and cleared his voice before answering.

“Dean?”

“Fucking Hell Sam answer your goddamned phone!”

Sam winced. “I’m sorry Dean, I got caught up in the rain… Just arrived at the hotel.”

Sam heard a clear sigh of relief. “You good?”

“Yeah, yeah just a bit, uh, a lot wet.”

“Take a bath already or your cold will get worse.”

Sam huffed. “I’m not a child Dean.”

“That’s what you say, anyway” Dean went on to the next subject before Sam could object “I’m stuck here at the highway, fucking road is flooded and I can’t get past.”

“You okay?”

“If you think of not being able to move from this crappy gas n’ sip in the middle of nowhere for the following ten hours okay...”

“Hey, at least you got unlimited beer access.”

“That I still have to pay..”

Sam sighed in relief, no Dean for ten hours meant no trouble for ten hours as well. “I’m glad you’re good.”

“...You sure you’re okay?”

Sam tensed “Yeah of course, I’ll take a bath and go to bed.”

“What about your wound?”

“I’ll check it after cleaning myself.”

“Alright then, see you tomorrow. Take care.”

“You too, Dean.”

Sighing, he grabbed a set of dry clothes and went back to the bathroom, where he had left everything in a mess. Taking the quickest bath he could and grimacing at the look of his wound, he closed it with micropore; proceeded to fill the sink with lukewarm water and placed the mopey bundle in it. A pitiful meowth came out of it.

“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay, I know you were already wet but you definitely need this.”

The cat must definitely have had a home, it didn’t like the bath at all but stayed still enough to let Sam do his job. He had to wash it twice before the tawny hair looked orange enough and the suds of soap were not dropping dirt all over the sink. 

Once he was done with it, he grabbed a used towel and wrapped the cat in it, doing his best to dry it’s fur as best as he could. The cat dropped another couple of sad meowths. Sam grabbed a second towel and finished drying it. When he was done, the cat was purring gently, cradled in the big hunter’s arms.

Sam sneezed, he blew his nose, took the medicine for the pain and got himself into the bed. The cat immediately moved towards him and laid over his chest, purring loudly. Sam couldn’t help but feel a rush of warm gratitude inside and hoped that Castiel would be able to see this.

“Hello Sam.”

Sam turned up to meet his friend, completely in shock. “Cas!? Wha—How did you get here?” 

Castiel gave Sam a shy smile. “Jack helped me. He figured out how to heal my wings.”

Sam looked at him with an open mouth, a part of him was alert, aware that this might be a trap of some sort, he did his best to try to come up with some sort of proof. “Can you show them to me?”

Castiel chuckled. “Of course.”

Sam saw his friend shine bright while the shadow of his perfectly formed wings was cast onto the walls behind. Even the cat in his arms was looking at it with wide pupils. Sam smiled broadly when the display came to an end.

“Wow, Cas that’s… I’m so glad for you! Is Jack okay?”

“Of course he is, he stayed back watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

Sam snickered. 

“I heard your call.”

Sam blushed. “Oh that...” nervous giggle “I just thought you would like to meet my new friend.” He looked down to his chest. The cat looked at Castiel, assessing the newcomer with care.

Castiel’s eyes went wide; he smiled and knelt in front of it, placing a hand over it’s paw. “Hello. My name’s Castiel.”

The cat meowed. Sam beamed, finding the interaction the cutest thing he had ever seen.

“I found it on my way back. Poor thing was stuck under a wire in the garbage; I thought it was hurt but I think it was just scared.”

The cat meowed once more. 

“I believe she’s hungry. Do you have any food for her?”

“Uh, there was a seven eleven at the corner, I could g—” Sam couldn’t finish his sentence, the angel was already out of sight in a flap of his wings. 

Sam rolled his eyes. He remembered that had been something he really hated about that particular angelic trait of his friend. Some minutes later, Castiel was back with a bag of groceries and a latte. He gave the latte to Sam and went to the kitchenette to take out the cat bowl he had bought and a can of cat food. Throwing the contents in a plastic bowl, he placed it on the floor that was followed by another bowl filled with water. The cat quickly jumped from Sam’s lap and rushed towards the food. It was still a little wet so Castiel dried it completely with a touch. He turned to look at Sam. 

“You also need to get dry.” He walked towards Sam, extended two fingers towards his friend’s forehead and he immediately frowned.

“What? What is it?”

“Sam, you’re in shambles. Why were you out in the rain with this cold?”

“Oh, we just finished a hunt and—” 

“And your leg! Whatever happened to it? Your nerves are destroyed!”

“It was an accident Cas, I thought—” 

Castiel looked frustrated “You thought you could handle a hunt in this condition?”

Sam blushed and fumbled with the sheets of the bed. Castiel sighed deeply and placing his fingers over his forehead once more, healed Sam completely.

Sam felt the sudden change of his general health state like the sharp and high note of a triangle hitting him in waves. His body stopped aching, his muscles were rested, his leg no longer felt tight and cramped, his nose was no longer stuffy, his eyes didn’t feel bloated anymore and he finally felt warm inside. Sam sighed profoundly. 

“Thanks Cas.”

Sam’s grateful eyes were all the angel needed to smile at the world. He simply nodded at Sam.

Attracted by the munching noises, they watched the cat eat in silence while Castiel nudged Sam towards finishing his latte, placing a burrito on his hands that Sam had not noticed before. It was a calming thing; to relax against the headboard, angel sitting by his side, heavy rain hitting the window and the cat happily eating near the kitchenette. Once the cat was happy with the amount of food and water it had, she went back to Sam’s side on the bed, who had already finished his food as well, and began to purr. Warm, head slightly against Castiel’s shoulder and the purring cat, Sam began to doze off. 

“Sam?”

“Mhm?”

“Do you think the cat is happy enough? I think we could make her happier.”

Sam fumbled in his pocket and passed his phone to Castiel while mumbling something close to “Google”. He answered something but Sam was already too asleep to realize what it was Castiel was asking him about. 

Sam woke up; somehow disoriented when instead of warmth by his side, the bed was incredibly cold and the darkness of the room was only cut by the tiny lightbulb over the kitchenette stove. He sat up, looked at the clock to find it was one in the morning and then looked around until he found Castiel sitting on a chair, his back facing Sam, apparently interested with something on the table.

“Cas?”

Sam stood up and walked towards the angel. He saw him looking at the cat, who was laying inside a box. Sam snickered and Cas started to talk when he felt Sam’s hand on the chair’s back.

“Google told me that boxes make cats happy. Do you think she’s happy enough Sam?”

Sam peeked and smiled sleepily. “Yeah, I think she’s happy enough Cas.”

He yawned.

“You should go back to sleep Sam.” 

Sam nodded and walked back to the bed with Castiel’s eyes on him but stopped in the middle to look back.

“Sleep with me?”

Castiel turned to move the box down onto the floor. He didn’t want the cat to fall from the kitchen table while he was away and stood up to follow Sam. He took off his coat while Sam changed into his pajamas and looked around for a second pillow.

“You can grab Dean’s, he got stuck on the highway when coming back from the graveyard.”

Castiel grabbed the pillow and doubted for a second. “I could go pick him up.”

“And have him complain about the cat? Or even worse, our sleeping habits? I’ve already got enough teasing at home.”

“Oh, right, cleaning up the pipes all the time instead of doing something together, if I remember well.”

Sam huffed dejectedly, covering himself with the sheet in embarrassment while Castiel propped himself against the headboard, opening his phone ready to look for a book he could read while Sam slept. 

“I still don’t understand what he means. We haven’t done any kind of plumbing in the bunker so far.”

Sam’s ears turned red. “It means sex, Cas. He says I should be having sex already instead of just jacking it off.”

Castiel’s eyes lit up in comprehension. “Oh.” Sam sighed and turned to his side. “...I think Dean has the wrong idea about me.”

“...I know.”

“I would never start any kind of sexual approach towards you unless you wanted me to.”

Sam hummed to agree to Castiel’s words until he actually began to process them. He hastily turned towards his friend. “Wait, what?”

“I said—”

“I know what you said! I just… Would you have sex with me?” If Sam had not been so sleepy, he probably would have blushed at how straightforward he had asked this.

“Sam, I love you, I’ve told you so before.”

“I know you’ve—” Sam halted and began once more, clearly frustrated “I thought you always meant it like, in a platonic kind of way.”

Castiel looked at him for a long moment while Sam felt like he was being scanned naked and his heart fluttered unnecessarily. Eventually, Castiel talked once more. “Sam, you taught me all I know about human kindness and gave me proof that you can fight against all odds if you have your heart in the right place. You showed me how powerful a single human soul can be and I have never felt more alive than whenever I’m able to be by your side, and this is the reason why I wouldn’t hesitate on giving away my own existence if that meant you stayed alive. My feelings for you go well beyond the platonic nature. I love you.”

Sam was glad Castiel hadn’t brought his brother back from wherever he was stranded at the moment, otherwise he would have teased him for the rest of their lives with how red his face was at the moment.

“Cas, I...”

Castiel stopped him. “I also want you to know that it’s okay if you don’t feel that way. It has never been my intention to burden you with my feelings and I don’t expect you to suddenly answer them back.”

Sam was stunned, he nodded and then he snorted and began to laugh, throwing his head back over the pillow.

“Sam?”

“Oh god, Cas, I’ve been such an idiot.” he sat up to be at Castiel’s level, a clear spark in his eyes. “We have been such idiots.”

Castiel frowned. “What do you—”

He couldn’t stop his query, Sam suddenly shortened the distance between them and gave him a kiss. They stayed like that long enough to feel their lips unseal when Sam finally went back a little.

“Sam?”

Sam smiled, a little embarrassed. “I thought you didn’t feel anything like that since you were an angel.”

Castiel’s eyes widened in understanding. He smiled at Sam apologetically. “I do believe it was an easy mistake to make.” 

They chuckled softly. 

“So uhm, about you loving me, I guess you can tell I feel the same?”

Castiel nodded “Your intentions have been duly noted.”

“And uh…” Sam looked aside ears slightly pink “about the sex.” He coughed. “Would you really…?” 

“I would, I will if you let me. Maybe I wouldn’t have thought about it as an important matter years ago but my time as a human opened my eyes to the more carnal pleasures.”

Sam blushed hard with this last statement, he didn’t know how Castiel could make things so awkward with such formal behaviour. He looked away for a moment making up his mind.

“Look uh, I was just sick and beaten and all so I’d rather rest right now but once we’re back home… uhm...” He looked at Castiel, wondering how he had been so bold when kissing him and now felt like a wavering mess. 

Castiel’s pupil’s darkened and he gave Sam a killing smile “I will look forward for that moment.” He doubted for a moment before going forward to peck Sam’s lips. “Now go to sleep.”

Sam nodded, scared to say anything about the way that look had made his body react and turned to the side, feeling Castiel’s hand softly placing itself on his shoulder and petting him.

“Goodnight Cas.”

“Sleep well Sam.”

Sam woke up when his brain began to process that the frantic voice he was listening to in the haze before reacting to the world belonged to his brother.

“...And what are you going to do with that thing anyway? We’re hunters Cas! We don’t have time to take care of a furball!” 

“I’m sure Jack will be happy to stay with her from time to time.”

Dean inhaled. “You don’t get it.” He stopped abruptly, he inhaled once more and then he sneezed. “Damnit!”

“What’s the problem?”

“That is the problem! I’m allergic to cats in case you don’t remember!”

“Oh.”

Dean mocked Castiel’s serious tone “Oh.”

“If that is the only problem...” 

“What? What are you doing? Cas? Don’t!” 

There was a sudden silence in the room that Sam was too afraid to turn to investigate. A rustle of fabric and a couple of whiffs later they spoke again.

“Better?”

“Yeah...” 

Sam sensed that his brother was actually not very happy about whatever Castiel had done. Sam turned around slowly, he knew he was eventually going to have to face him.

“Dean?”

“Well look at that! Sleeping Beauty finally decided to join us!”

“You okay? Where’s the car?”

“My Baby is full of mud and dirty as hell, thanks for nothing.”

Sam had known that when Dean found out Castiel was able to fly once more he would complain about that. “Oh come on Dean, you don’t even like being zapped. I bet you would have told Cas to go back home.”

Dean lifted his finger to retaliate but didn’t find a way to fight the simple truth so he huffed and moved towards the bathroom. Soon, the shower was heard through the door. Castiel sighed and sat by Sam’s side.

“What happened?”

“Well, your brother almost shot me when he saw me here and then I told him about the wings and then about the cat.” 

“He was making quite a scene for just being angry about those things.”

Castiel looked down for a second, a pensive hand on his chin. 

“I did inform him of the condition you were in when I arrived. He became extremely upset upon hearing how bad your wound was, as well as your fever from the infection and the cold virus you were harboring."

Sam smiled bleakley and tried to shrug it off but Castiel reached to hold his hand. 

"Sam, I understand wanting to 'get the job done', but you can't always put yourself and your health for last. Dean, Jack, Me. We all care about you too much for you to run that kind of risk."

Sam squeezed Castiel’s hand back and tugged his lips in a would be smile, flushed a little with the angel’s warm words.

“I’m sorry Cas, I’ll try to do better.”

A hint of a smile tugged at Castiel's lips before he took in some air. “But you know? I think that what really pissed him off was that I told him I was ready to ask for your hand in marriage.”

“What?” Sam turned to look at Castiel in shock before realizing he had said it as a joke. He snorted, and then he laughed and Castiel joined his mirth with a smile 

“Wait, did you really tell him that?”

“Just that we had started a relationship. You don’t need your brother’s permission to get married.”

Sam sighed, a smile still framing his face, he got up from the bed and prepared his stuff and some of Dean’s, considering he had stormed into the bath without even his clean underwear and that he didn’t want to see his brother naked for longer than he must. Or rather, he didn’t want Castiel to do the same.

Castiel smirked when he caught that last thought but said nothing, deciding to focus his attention on the cat, that was now looking around a bit frantic. Castiel frowned while approaching her. 

“Sam? Something’s wrong with the cat.”

Sam turned to look at the poor thing, now scratching the corner of the kitchen and turning around, squaring her paws in a very clear stance. “Crap, I think it’s gonna pee! What do we do Cas!? We don’t have a—”

Castiel had been faster than him, he bent down to take the cat and disappeared from the room in an instant but the damage was already done, Sam clearly saw a yellowish puddle where the cat had been.

“Great...” He sighed and turned around, looking for some leftover napkins from yesterday’s meal, hoping that it wouldn’t stink later.

When Dean came out, Castiel was still nowhere to be seen and Sam was taking some notes by the kitchenette. He took the chance to sit in front of his brother.

“So...”

“So?”

Dean lifted up his hand and started to count. “Damaged nerves, infection and a cold?”

Sam looked aside sighing. “Dean—”

“No, Sam, no. Don’t even think of trying to say something about the greater good right now because I’m done with all that. I only have one good thing to care about and that’s you. You got it?”

Sam didn’t know where to hide. He felt like a ten year old being scolded by his parents.

“So next time, _if_ there is a next time, you come running to me, or Cas, or Jack. Yo got it?”

Sam nodded, unable to say a thing against his big brother’s mother henning. Dean allowed himself to let out a breath of content, knowing he had won the discussion.

“...Guess that the only good thing that came out of all this is that you’ve finally got lucky huh?”

Sam groaned, “Dean...”

“No no no, don’t tell me anything, we both know you’ve always had a thing for his dreamy blue eyes” Sam gave him the stink eye “I’m kind of amazed it took you all this time to confess”

“I didn’t...” Sam stopped his retort when he realized what he was gonna say but Dean had already figured it out.

“Holy crap, he’s the one that confessed? Man, I could have expected at least that from you! What’s gonna happen next? You dying from the worst case of blue balls ever because you can’t properly ask for some down to town time from your own boyfriend?”

Now Sam covered his face with his hands “Oh god Dean, are you listening to yourself? How can you talk about us this way?”

“Hey, I’m worried about you, it’s been ages since you last got laid!”

“And I’ve always told you I just can’t get laid with anybody like you!”

“So you’re saying Cas is just anybody?”

“What? No!”

“So what’s stopping you now?”

San blanked. “What—”

“Oh come on Sam, I arrive and you’re sleeping in the bed full clothed even when Cas tells me you went legit yesterday night? You knew I was stuck out there and you were gonna have more than enough time to get it going. And you cannot make me buy the fact that Cas is not into you like that.”

Dean’s sly smile and eyes looking straight into Sam who looked away, embarrassed.

“I know but the hunt—”

“We solved everything yesterday.”

“I’m just nervous Dean!” Sam finally snapped, “I… I know he wants to go all the way, but I’m not really sure if I want to do that because unlike with you and girls, things are not really set in stone on the positions of each one of us!”

“...I honestly can’t believe you’re asking me to give you advice on which one of you two should top and which one should bottom.” He stopped Sam before he could say anything, “And you know what? I don’t know and I don’t care. Because that’s something you should talk with him. You honestly can’t be expecting to have everything figured out from scratch do you? You nerd.” 

Sam looked at his brother and shut up, looking down to his notes on how to take care of cats. 

“What’s taking him so long anyway?” Dean took his phone and waited to get an answer “Cas? Hey man what’s up? Where are you?” He kept silent for a moment, Sam tried to listen but Castiel’s voice was not high enough to reach him “Okay, well we’re going for breakfast so join us at the booth in front of the motel when you’re done.”

“What did he say?”

“Took your furball to the vet. They began to talk about vaccines and what not and apparently he’s now being christened as a new pet owner. Congratulations, it’s a girl.”

“Wait, does this mean we get to keep her?”

Dean was already at the door frame. “Breakfast Sammy!”

When Castiel appeared with them at the booth of the diner, he was cat-less. He had left it sleeping in a newly bought cat bed where he left his own trench coat so that she didn’t feel alone. It took him a good fifteen minutes to thoroughly explain to Sam all that they did in the vet.

“I’m sorry Sam, I was asked to give her a name out of the blue and it turned out it was going to the register, I should have consulted with you first.”

“How did you name her?”

“Furball.”

Sam and Dean snorted and almost spilled their coffee with how loud they laughed.

“Why is that so funny? Dean calls every cat Furball after all.”

This raised a new wave of laughter from the brothers.

“No Cas, you don’t—” Sam coughed some air “You don’t get it. Furball is not really a name, he calls them that as a derisive of sorts.”

Castiel raised his eyebrows in understanding and then made a face full of regret. “Oh.”

“It’s okay Cas it’s just a name. It does look like a furball, so Furball is cute.”

“Well I wasn’t gonna change the way I call it so it’s all good for me.”

Sam looked at his brother with a sparkle in his eyes, all the hints Dean had been giving throughout the day leant towards the fact that they were going to keep the cat but since he wasn’t sure, he came to the conclusion that he would act as if it had already been decided he would keep it. They had a bit of a conflict when it came to getting the cat in the car but Castiel held it properly on his lap. Apparently, he was able to communicate with Furball on a basic level so the cat went along with their program. She still needed a collar, which Sam added to his mental notes to buy.

“You know, I think Cas would be a very good cat.” said Dean, breaking the tranquil silence of the past five hours, lazily passing a hand over Furball, who had decided to have the middle of the front seat for herself.

Sam snorted “Yeah? Why’s that?”

“Because he’s always out doing his own stuff and only comes back when he wants to see you.”

“That is true.” Chimed in Castiel, before Sam could say anything against it. Sam felt his cheeks burn.

“So what kind of cat would you be Cas?”

“Are you kidding me? You’re a witch, you need a black cat. So he’s a black cat with blue eyes.”

“...I am a little bit more fond of the pattern of the Siamese but I do get where you’re coming from.”

“Maybe Sam can use his ginger mojo and we could see.”

“No offense Sam, I trust you entirely but I heavily recommend against trying to change the shape of my vessel so drastically.”

Sam laughed heartily, especially when he turned to his brother and saw him say mutedly “Cat ears.” Now the thought of a Castiel with cat ears was polluting his thoughts and, to his surprise, the idea didn’t sound half bad.


End file.
